“N-no, it’s okay,” she answered in a small voice.

She clasped her hands to her chest, bringing her knees along with them like she was curling away from him. She didn’t smell of fear, which relieved him, and her breaths were just as short and shallow as before.

“But you are bleeding.” A whistling of a whimper rattled at the bottom of his lungs. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Was I too rough? Orpheus had been too excited, had been lost in the taste of her, the smell of her, at the feel of her around his tongue. She was so soft inside.

He knew he hadn’t been thinking straight, hadn’t being paying close enough attention to her delicate and fragile body when he’d been devouring the delicious taste of her honey. He’d been trying to go slowly, savouring it, but he knew he must have made a mistake.

“I think you broke my hymen.”

“Your what?” he gasped, tilting his head as he looked down towards her pelvis. “I broke you?”

Have humans gotten weaker over the eons? Dread crept through him. If he broke her, shouldn’t she be screaming and crying?

“What? No!” she laughed with a panicky tone, her eyes wide and stark. “You broke my hymen, like the thing that proves that I’ve never been touched by a man.”

“I... I don’t understand.”

All he was hearing was that he broke her, and he knew he’d hurt her by the taste of her blood.

“You... uh.” Her cheeks flushed a bright red. “You took my virginity with your tongue.”

“Your virginity?” Now that he understood. The first penetration done or received by man or woman. “Humans bleed when this happens?”

“Just the women! We have a piece of skin called a hymen that is broken.” Then she grumbled as she averted her gaze,

“I can’t believe I have to explain this. I thought you would know this.”

He nearly growled as a flare of anger rose in his chest.

“Why would I know something like this about a human?”

“Because you asked for all your offerings to be pure!” she shouted as she curled her hands into tight fists. Her cheeks were unmistakably red, more so than he’d ever seen before.

She shouted at me. He couldn’t believe she would.

Humans rarely showed their anger to him.

“Of disease.”

“Wait, what?” she quickly said, her voice breathy like a gasp.

Her gaze swiftly came to him. The tension in her fists faded along with the spike of anger he’d seen in her mirroring his own.

“Pure of disease, of sickness.” He tilted his head in confusion. “I didn’t want the humans to pass on those to me

that were going to die.”

“Oh, my God,” she gasped, her eyes trailing over the bed in thought and realisation. “We’ve always thought you meant pure of sex, like untouched virgins as your brides. We didn’t know if it was for sex, or because perhaps you could taste the impurity of a touched human. I didn’t understand why it would matter to something like you, but this makes so much more sense.”

Something... like me. She would never know, but her words hurt him terribly.

“Then... then are you not hurt?”

Her arousal had softened during their conversation, but he could still smell it. Orpheus wanted more. He’d been enjoying himself, awash in the taste of it, or her, hearing the sounds of her moans. Her body twitching and shivering due to his attention.

All of it coming from her for him, because of him.

“It hurt a little, but I’m okay now. The pain didn’t last long.”

Her cheeks reddened a little more, so easy for him to see and understand due to her snowy complexion.

Orpheus reached across the bed with the intention of stroking her cheek with a tender touch. She flinched, her shoulders turning inwards as she shied away.

He withdrew his hand from the air, knowing that whatever had caused her arousal had passed and she was no longer filled with desire. She didn’t want to continue, even though he would have been happy to remain where he’d been until eons passed and the world crumbled around them.

But it had happened once. Hope blossomed freely within him at the idea of it possibly happening again. I tasted her, made her come.

He would hold dear this memory for the rest of his life.

His vision returned to its usual blue as he crawled backwards off the bed.

“Sleep well, my little doe.”

Then he left her room, feeling a swell of tenderness and joy in his gut.

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I have to run, Reia thought, as she sprinted through the forest. Don’t look back, just keep going forward.

She felt the teardrop jewel tapping against her forehead like a rhythm to keep her focused and calm. Her legs and lungs burned as exertion strained her muscles, but she continued forward, never daring to slow or to rest.

Placing her hand on the rough surface of a large boulder, she kicked her legs over it to jump and then pushed off to keep running. Trees whistled past her, blurring in the edges of her vision as debris filled wind, from leaves and dust, fluttered around her.

She didn’t know how long she’d been running. An hour, maybe a little more?

Shrouded in a white cloak, gripping a dagger firmly in her hand, Reia ran through the darkness and gloom of the Veil.

She refused to feel fear, hoping that the amulet and her faith in it would keep her safe.

I can make it, just keep running.

After their interlude of Orpheus having his fucking tongue inside her, Reia had sat on her bed panicking. Shame and embarrassment caused her blood to rush with adrenaline.

She’d let him touch her, lick her, and her body had been begging for more. Even when he left, her body had been